Jon Hopkins, Appellant v. the City of Brinkley, Arkansas; and the Brinkley Water & Sewer Department, Appellees

Summary

The court held that a municipal-utility ratepayer's home address is a public record subject to disclosure under the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act because no applicable statutory exemption covers it. The federal Red Flags Rule does not preempt the Act because the federal requirements do not conflict with disclosure of a home address, and the utility failed to establish a constitutional privacy exemption. The court reversed and remanded for further proceedings consistent with its opinion. Justice Hoofman, dissenting, would have affirmed because disclosure of utility customers' home addresses bears no relationship to the FOIA's stated purpose and produces an unreasonable result.